Opening Minds with Creativity and Art

Guendouz Bensidhoum, a painter and ATD Fourth World Volunteer Corps member from France, worked with our Appalachia Team in Dickenson County, VA, for three months. He met and worked with local residents and contributed to the community through his painting.

My first impression of Appalachia was the isolation of the people. Small communities are cut off from each other; most houses date from the time they were built by the mine companies to house their workers. With the decline of the coal industry many houses are now empty and often partially destroyed.Each week I painted at the Binns-Counts Community Center in McClure and participated in the life of the ATD Fourth World Learning Co-op on Reedy Ridge, outside of town. Mary White, the director at Binns-Counts, and her husband JR let me use a room with a large window facing the parking lot. From there people could see me paint. Many entered the workshop and commented on the paintings. They asked how long it took me to do a painting, where I learned to paint, how much a painting would cost, and why I came here from Paris.

We learned to communicate even with my limited English. I realize that painting is a medium to get to meet people. It also brings an atmosphere of peace. I appreciated the fact that Binns-Counts staff and volunteers would ask me to have a meal with them. JR especially made sure I had everything I needed and that the room was warm when I came. He would bring people in, stay himself for long periods of time and say, "Good job!"

Jarvis, from Clintwood, came to the Binns-Counts Center several times. At first he just watched me paint. Then as I encouraged him, he spoke of what he would like to paint in memory of his ex-wife who had died. She liked mermaids and butterflies. I offered to help him paint it. He spent a whole day painting with me. I was impressed because it required so much effort and concentration. He took the finished painting with him and it was later exhibited with my other paintings at the Clintwood Public Library.

A few days after my arrival we went to a Senior Center and met with former residents of Clinchco, which used to be a much more populated mining town. The director of the Senior Center invited me to come and paint with the seniors. For two weeks I did a workshop with them, each person doing their own painting on a small canvas. I also was able to paint with children at a Headstart program in the town of Haysi, at the request of Sherri Stapleton, an ATD Fourth World member who works there. There too, the painting session had been prepared very well by the teachers and the children were eager to watch me paint for them and to then do their own art work. In both places, they all dared to paint something.

During the three months I also visited several people the team knows. One of them was Rex, a musician who built his house with wood he got at a mill that provides boards for guitars. He also makes some of his own instruments. He fixed up his house with much taste, ingenuity, and humor. Another visit was to Jean in an assisted living home for people with serious handicaps. She introduced us to other residents and immediately shared the small gifts we had brought her.With its hills and creeks, the region is very beautiful. I had never seen before such colors as those in the forests in autumn there. Despite the mines and dumpsites, the pollution of the air and the waters, I keep the image of beautiful nature. The railroad lines with the 100-car trains carrying up to 44 tons of coal were like a scar to the landscape. However, I liked to paint there.

My first painting was of Main Street in Clintwood, in the morning with the sun making long shadows down the street. This is something very graphic. For me, it typifies a small American town. I did another painting of Main Street in Clinchco and a very large one of the area known as McClure Bottom as a gift to the Binns-Counts Center. JR White helped me hang the painting in the main room of the center before their Christmas party. A lawyer in Clintwood purchased one of my paintings to hang in his office on Main Street. He showed it very proudly to people when the paintings were exhibited at the public library. The librarians were very welcoming and helpful in setting up this exhibit. People told me they could see their region in a different way through the paintings.

Throughout the three months I could sense how important art is for people. Many made comments that showed how deeply they felt about a painting. For me it was also an important time to nourish and stimulate my own creativity. It confirmed that ATD Fourth World Movement is right to invest in creativity, art, and culture with people in lively and concrete ways.